Dangerously in Love
by Marilyn Stabs
Summary: When the Dark Lord comes to Hogwarts, two rival houses are thrown together in the Forbiden Forest in a mad attempt at excape. Drama ensues, partnerships are formed and as house seperation become blurry, romance blooms. But people may not be what they seem
1. Night of the Living Dead

****

Chapter One: Night of the Living Dead

Disclaimer: All characters bases on the Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling. This story is my own, as are my interpretations of the characters, places, and situations. 

Warning: This story contains naughty words, violence, much sexual tension and innuendo, gross misspellings, homo and heterosexuality, smooching, slash, and probably sex. If that's not your bag, then don't read the story. Take responsibility for yourself, reader. If you knew you didn't like broccoli, you wouldn't eat it right? The same thing goes for this story.

Notes: This has been in the works for about a month on account of I have to keep changing small details as I flesh out my plans for this story. It will (hopefully) be a trilogy, as long as I don't get to lazy to finish it. Reviews are welcome and encouraged. Intelligent criticism is also welcome. Unintelligent criticism will be promptly made fun off.

Cheers, and enjoy the story.

-Marilyn Stabs, Author

The summer before Harry Potter's 7th year.

A summer storm was raging outside the windows of the Malfoy Manor. Inside his room on the second floor, leaning back in a black leather chair with one leg thrown over the arm was Draco Malfoy. He studied the chess board in front of him which was enchanted to play against him. And play well. 

Draco's eye's flicked to the clock on his wall. Past three a.m. He really ought to be in bed now- his mother would pitch a fit if she found him up this late. She believed in good health which meant getting eight hours rest a night. Now, Draco still could have gotten eight hours of sleep if his mother allowed anyone in the household to sleep past nine. Which she didn't. Draco's parents had long since gone to bed. In fact, they'd retired rather early tonight, but they'd seemed quiet and tired all day. 

Draco moved his eyes back to the board and lifted his arm up. A breeze from his window rustled his black silk robe, which huge open at his sides. His lower half was encased in a matching pair of silk boxers. He shifted forwards, his long fingers entwining around one of his white pawns. He considered moving it forwards, but then thought he should make a riskier move. The bigger the risk, the bigger the possible gain, right?

He dropped the pawn with a clunk and moved his hand over to his king. He pondered a moment, then slide it diagonal one. Then he waited.

The board was usually quick to make it's move, so that the player didn't get bored. But a few seconds passed and nothing happened. Outside, lightening rippled through the sky followed by a quaking thunder that shook the walls. A few of the piece vibrated. Then, off in a corner of the board that he hadn't been paying much attention to, a black knight on it's reared horse began to slide forwards with a slight quaking movement. It then moved to the side, in it's L shaped pattern. It stopped, and after a second, the knight looked up and declared "Check Mate."

"What?" Draco sputtered in disbelief. He jumped out of his chair and leaned in to survey his board. How could that have happened? He'd been paying such close attention! He'd been at the game all night, and in fact had been winning up until now. How-

Suddenly Draco paused as a strange feeling came over him. He was hit with a wave of fear and confusion. He stood completely motionless for a full minute, listening, trying to sense the sudden change in atmosphere. Trying to figure out why suddenly something seemed strange. 

He stood listening to his breath go in and out in deep, gasping breathes. And that's when it hit him. It was quiet. The storm had stopped. The rain had stopped. And the wind was no longer blowing through his window.

Now he turned, ran towards the window and looked outside. It was still dark and cloudy but the rain wasn't falling. In fact, the earth seemed to have gone suddenly very still. 

Draco's heart was pounding now. A sweat broke out of his forehead. _Stay calm,_ he commanded himself. But he knew it wasn't possible. He was having a panic attack. He'd been having panic attacks since he was little, and knew once something set one off, he was just going to have to get through it.

He was gasping for breath now as if all the air was getting sucked up out of the room. He slammed the window shut, wanting to get away from the strange freak out of nature going on at the moment. He hovered between the window and his door, wondering if he should wake his parents. His father had at times concocted brews that would put him to sleep during his attacks, so that he could sleep them away. But he hated to bother him at this hour. And even though he knew his father understood that his panic attacks were just a freak of genetics, something bred into him that was in no way a reflection of his character, they always made him feel weak. 

Ok, he just needed to sit down and figure out what had caused this attack. He'd just been playing chess when suddenly something in the room had seemed to change. And then…then the storm stopped. Ok. That wasn't so bad, really. It was abrupt, certainly, but not all together too uncommon for a summer storm. They sometimes ended just as suddenly as the started. 

But Draco still felt as though something was wrong. It was almost as if he KNEW something was wrong. Chewing his lip, he slowly made his way to the door. And as his hand touched the cool, iron knob a smell suddenly hit his noise and caused him to double over with nauseas. 

Oh God, it smelled like a rotting corpse mixed with the metallic scent of blood. Draco could almost taste it in his mouth. Gasping, he struggled to stand up straight and pull the door open. Something was very wrong here. 

He stumbled out into the dark hallway, his black robe flapping around him and swirling in around his chilled skin. His hair fell into his face and stuck to the sweat on his forehead. He coughed as the smell grew stronger and stronger, almost like it was getting closer. Then he felt the hairs on the back of his neck prickle, and slowly he turned to the stairs.

Oh.

Shit.

The tip of a cane clunked onto the landing of the staircase. It was the color of steel and flashed in the dim light of the single candle still lit in the hall. There was scrapping sound, and soon the tip of a black boot slide onto the floor. Draco backed against the wall, unable to look away, though he knew what he was about to see. His heart seized up in his chest. 

The heavy fabric of a cape swept forwards as the figure on the steps hoisted them self into the hall. It was nearly 7 feet tall. Skinny, with bizarrely broad shoulders from which a massive, heavy black cape flowed down to the floor. Two large, long hands were curled around the top of a curved cane. It was shaped like a snake. A snake with glowing green eyes and a scull between its jaws.

Volemort tipped his head up, longish black hair dripping into his face. Draco gasped at the horrific figure before him. The last time he'd seen Voldemort…well he hadn't been this…far a long.

Volemort was getting his body back. But it was a slow process. Backwards decomposition. It was disgusting.

His hair was back, growing in thick and black and falling almost to his ears. As he looked up at Draco with the pale blue eyes of his former incarnation, Tom Riddle, his hair fell away from his face, revealing a gaping lack of skin on one side of his face. Muscles and tissue and bone were visible, yellowish and stringy. One the other half of his face, a flawless white skin had grown in, and the handsome features he'd had as a young man were present. Strange how Voldemort could look both breathtakingly magnificent and so shockingly revolting at once. Strange how something once so beautiful could be so ugly inside. 

"Quiet, Draco," said Voldemort. His voice was a mixture of human baritone and a strange, mechanical sounding screech. He leaned closer, and Draco struggled not to gag from the smell. "I can hear what you're thinking."

Then he pulled himself up, towering over Draco's tall form by nearly a foot, and started down the hall slowly. The door at the end of the hall opened. His parents room. His father stepped out, fully dressed in his best dress robes. Draco struggled to understand what was going on, but he simply didn't. He thought his father was through with all this. He thought it was over.

It struck him suddenly that maybe it was just beginning.

"Dad," he said.

Lucius looked up, his blue eyes catching his son's gray ones. He lifted his head and took in a deep breath, seeming to be struggling to look dignified. Draco felt sick.

"Draco," his father said in a calm, cool voice, "Go to your room."

Draco pushed off the wall he was leaning on. "What?!"

"Go to your room."

"No. What the hell is going on?" He demanded angrily. His father had had promised him that he was done with dear old, rotting Voldie. He no longer believed in the Dark Lord's cause. Those days of his life were supposed to be over. He wasn't going to be Voldimort's crutch anymore. 

Voldemort turned to him, staring at him with the eye not held in by skin, but instead stuck to the socket by yellow muscles that were twitching as he looked about. 

"Listen to your father, Draco," he said.

Before he could say anything, his mother appeared in the doorway behind his dad. She too was dressed in her best robes, with her make up done up and her blonde hair styled. She looked at Draco worriedly and nodded. Draco slowly backed up towards his bed room. He slip inside and closed the door, falling back against it.

What was going on? What was _he_ doing here? And why did Draco feel so bad about all this?

Then he heard his fathers voice screaming in the next room. A horrible scream, so full of pain that it almost tore Draco apart. He ripped out of his bedroom and tore down the hall, yanking open the door to his parents bedroom. 

He saw his mother first, collapsed in the corner, her hands over her mouth, her cheeks stained in tears. He followed her gaze across the room, where the massive form of Voldimort stood, hands on his cane, looking down.

One the ground before him, was the motionless body of Lucius Malfoy. Draco covered his mouth before he screamed…


	2. Here's to Love

****

Chapter Two: Here's to Love

Disclaimer: All characters bases on the Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling. This story is my own, as are my interpretations of the characters, places, and situations. 

Warning: This story **still** contains naughty words, violence, much sexual tension and innuendo, homo and heterosexuality, gross misspellings, smooching, slash, and probably sex. If you don't like it, don't read it. If you don't like it and you still read it, then you are not my problem. You have had fair warning.

Notes: So this is where the story really starts. Everything to come is hinted at, so pay close attention. Hope you enjoy this as much as I enjoyed coming up with it. And just a note, romance is forth coming in this story, so don't be frightened away by all the heartbreak. Oh, and REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW!

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Spring of 7th year.

Draco shot up, panting. He wiped the layer of sweat beads from his forehead, and dropped his hand lower to his throat. He felt like he couldn't breath correctly. 

"DRACO!" someone yelled before barging in his door. Crabbe stood in his door way, taking up the entire opening.

"Is my tie on right?" he asked? Draco noticed he was dressed up. 

"Oh shit! The date!" Draco sputtered, jumping up from the foot of his bed where he was sitting. Having the dream had completely disoriented him. He could hardly believe he'd fallen asleep anyways, he hadn't slept in days because every time he closed his eyes he relived that horrible incident from this summer in his unconscious. He supposed that that very lack of sleep was what had caused him to conk out after classes were over.

He rubbed his neck again, feeling vaguely thankful that the dream never played all the way through, to the end. That, he thought, was too awful for his subconscious to want to remember.

"Draco, is my tie on right? Do you know that you're hair is all messed up?" Crabbe was babbling. "Everyone is waiting downstairs. Pansy's having a fit because you're running late."

"Like I care," Draco grumbled. He tugged a sweater on over his shirt, and grabbed his long, velvet robe from his trunk.

"Let's get this nightmare started, then," Draco said, and followed Crabbe out the door.

__

That night.

"I'll have a salad, please," Greg Goyle said cheerfully, then sent a wink Pansy's way.

She grinned back and patted him on the back. "I'm so proud of you, Pooh Bear!" she crooned.

Goyle giggled happily and said, "What's a pooh bear?"

"It's a muggle story character. It's a big, stupid, overweight teddy bear that talks," Malfoy said, snapping his menu shut, "I'll have the shrimp scampi. Easy on the butter. Last time I had it here I nearly had a heart attack."

"I'll have the same," Jenna Jackson, Malfoy's date for the night, said. She shifted in her seat, scooting closer to the tall blonde. She moved her arm towards her water, twisting it deliberately so that the sleeve of her black robes, which was slit to her elbow, fell open just slightly and showed off the curve of a green, tattooed design on her dark skin.

Malfoy shifted away from her, trying to suppress a shiver. He would never had agreed to take her on the stupid date if not for Goyle insisting on bringing his new love (and Malfoy's ex) to dinner. Malfoy had asked Jenna just because he knew Pansy despised her. Jenna was the only Slytherin who rivaled Pansy in the looks department. Jenna was tall, with black hair and blacker eyes. Her nose was turned up into an expression that was positively condescending. And she had a bust that had always been just one cup size larger than Pansy's all through growing up. Malfoy knew that Pansy grew furious just thinking about it. 

And, Jenna danced better than Pansy. And that killed her. Pansy's self confidence relied on the fact that she could coax a hard on out of any guy in the school with her dirty dancing. But Jenna- well Jenna could make a guy cream his pants.

Well, any guy but Malfoy. One look into those cold, black eyes and Malfoy wanted to take a shower. There was something just not right with her. And after this summer, after what Voldie did to his father- he could barely stand to sit next to someone who was so obviously proud of the dark mark burned onto their skin.

"Don't listen to Draco, baby. He can't help it that he's got a stick up his arse," Pansy said, wrapping her arms around Goyle's large body. She cuddled against him, sending a burning look in Malfoy's direction.

Malfoy ignored her, and turned to Blaise, who was seated across the table next to Millicent Bulstrode. Millie was gazing at Blaise with a 'I'm thinking something naughty' look on her face. But unfortunately for her, Malfoy knew something about Blaise that made him sure that Blaise would never be looking at Millie the same way.

"So, Blaise, how do you think you did on Snape's final?" Malfoy asked.

Blaise visibly rose in his seat, pushing his thick, wavy brown hair out of his eyes. "Oh, I already asked Sevie. I got a perfect. Would you believe it?"

"I would," Jenna said, wrinkling her nose, "Considering…"

Shut up, you frigid bitch, Malfoy thought. He had no idea how she knew, but Jenna was well aware of what Blaise was. But damn it, where did she get off thinking that Blaise would do a little- extra credit?- to get a good grade?

"Hey, Jenna," he started. But something caught his eye before he could spill out an insult. In the corner of their booth, Pansy and Goyle were engaged in a kiss that made then look as though they were Siamese twins attracted at the face. Malfoy's face grew red as he watched Pansy's hand drift up Goyle's leg toward his little Greg. God, right in front of everyone! 

That was it. He'd had enough. He was not going to watch Pansy go farther with some fat kid in front of EVERYONE than she'd gone with him in the entirety of their six month relationship. Damn it, she'd been with Goyle for a week and she was about to jump on him like he was the last copter out of 'Nam.

Malfoy threw down his napkin and stood up.

"Where are you going?" Blaise asked.

Malfoy just turned, his face burning, hair drifting into his eyes. A hot wetness burned in his eyes, and he didn't understand what it was. He wiped at his eyes as he stalked away from the table.

Behind him, Jenna called, "Draco, what are you doing?"

"I lost my appetite," he snarled, ripping through the restaurant. His gray robes flared out behind him, billowing up. 

He heard a chair scrape across the floor and footsteps clomp up behind him. A hand clamped down over his shoulder as he reached the lobby. His eyes were burning hard and he felt something thick in his throat. He couldn't swallow.

"Draco, are you OK?" Blaise asked, his fingers tightening on Malfoy's shoulder.

Malfoy spun around. "Do I look OK?" he barked, his voice faltering over the last word.

"No," Blaise said softly, reaching up and roughly brushing something wet and warm that was dripping from his eye.

Malfoy went white and instantly covered his face. "Oh shit, am I crying?"

"Either that, or your eyes are sweating," Blasie said quite seriously.

"Fuck," Malfoy said, and swept out the doors of the restaurant out to the streets of Hogsmead. He was met with a gust of cold air, not unusual for early May. He leaned against the rough stone walls of the building and wiped his face viciously. Blaise followed him out.

"I'll kill her," Malfoy said. "I'll kill that stupid bitch, she's doing this on purpose."

"Hey man, forget about her. You'll find someone else."

Malfoy laughed gruffly. His stormy gray eyes were twinkling in the firelight of the torches outside the doors of the restaurant. His robes flapped in the breeze. "Are you KIDDING?" he said, and laughed harder, "Not for anything would I get in another monogamous relationship! It'll never happen. From now on, it's one night stands for me. Fuck women, I'm through with them."

Blaise leaned against the wall, his tall frame towering over even Malfoy's. He grinned sheepishly, and pushed his tumbling waves of hair away from his face once again and said, "Amen to that."

Malfoy laughed.

"Harry, you're WHAT?" Ginny screamed, her face going as red as the fox-red hair streaming down her back. Her brown eyes were alive with some inner fire. 

Harry backed up and said, "Shhhh. Someone's going to hear you."

Ginny's mouth gaped open and she bellowed, "WHAT? SOMEONE'S GOING TO HEAR ME, ARE THEY? SOMEONE'S GOING TO HEAR ME AND KNOW THAT YOU'RE A NO GOOD, DECIETFUL, PIECE OF SHIT BOYFRIEND?"

"Ex-boyfriend," Harry squeaked quietly.

Wrong thing to say.

Something seemed to come over Ginny. Her tiny, skinny shape suddenly seemed large and ominous. Something in her eyes changed, went dead and uncaring. The tips of her fingers were twitching but the rest of her had gone still. He could tell that she was biting the inside of her cheek- something she only did when she was furious. Something she did when she was about to lose it. 

Before he even saw her pick it up, she hurled a text book at his head. Harry barely had time to doge it. It hit the door of her dorm, splinting the wood.

"Shit, Ginny, calm down," he said desperately. 

"You want me to calm down, you dickless son-of-a-bitch? How dare you ask anything of me! Harry, I've loved you since the day I met you. That's six years, Harry! And then- then you finally ask me out. And after six months of…of bliss, you just suddenly want to break up with me? Out of nowhere, you say that you don't have feelings for me? Like something like that can just go away?! Did you ever even really like me, Harry? Or was I just a pity fuck?" She stopped, seeming to just now think about what she'd just suggested. Her hand slapped her forehead, "Oh gods, was I?"

"No…of course not, Ginny. I really loved you. I…" he stopped, and grinned sheepishly. His green eyes were searching hers in a way that made her hurt. He ran a hand through his gelled hair and she knew instinctive exactly how it felt, because she herself had done it so many times. As he lifted his arm, his shirt came up, giving her a view of his sharp-as-daggers hips bones and his perfectly sculpted stomach. He gave her his patented 'I-can't-help-being-so-beautiful' look.

Well this time that wasn't going to work. Her chest felt like it had caved in over her heart, and she couldn't breath. She hurt so bad. All she could think of doing was making him hurt like she did.

She was trembling with anger as she backed up towards the trunk at the end of her bed. She felt around behind her, searching for something to fill her hand. Her fingers brushed something smooth and cold. The snow globe!

It was something Harry had bought her over Christmas holiday when they'd been apart. She had to go home for Christmas because Charlie and Bill were coming. At that time, she and Harry had been so crazy in love that the thought of being apart for ten days had been unbearable. Every single day Harry had written her a letter, and each one came with a package with a small gift attached. The snow globe came last, on Christmas morning. Inside it, was a miniature witch and wizard holding hands and skating over a little mirror lake. One the note, Harry had written: _I miss you some much that it hurts. I can't stop thinking about you. I dream about you every night. Ginny, I love you so much that I don't understand it. I never want us to be apart again. Please, come home soon._

Come home soon. Those words meant so much. He hadn't meant her real home, because she was already there. He meant himself. He was her home. He wanted them to be together forever. She'd been practically picking out her wedding dress.

From that point on, she'd pretty much assumed that they would be together forever.

Well, she'd been wrong, hadn't she?

Her hand squeezed the globe. She imagined the little people inside, skating around in a figure eight, forever in love. 

Forever in love. That didn't exist. Not for her.

She looked at Harry. So beautiful to her. So perfect. He was the only boy she'd ever loved, and she'd loved him so fully. She wanted to be his forever. She wanted to be the only girl that ever laid in his arms. She wanted to be the one to share his love, his pain, his future. She wanted to do anything for him. She wanted to love him.

But he didn't want that.

"Please, Ginny. I'm sorry. We can be friends still, can't we?"

That was it. That was the last straw. _We can be friends still, can't we?_ She repeated in her head. Stupid. So stupid. Hell no, they couldn't be friends. Because every time she saw him now, it was going to kill her. If she couldn't run to him and kiss him every time she saw him, she was going to die inside. She never wanted to see his fucking face ever again.

With that final thought, she hurled the globe at his head.

He yelped as it nicked his ear and smashed into the door in the exact place the book had hit. 

"Get out! I hate you!" she screamed.

"What?" Harry asked, looking confused and frightened.

"Get out, you bastard!"

The door opened. Ron came in, eyes wide as saucers. He took one look at Ginny and turned to Harry and grabbed him by the collar.

"What did you do to her, you fucking prick?" Ron yelled.

"Nothing- I-"

Ginny started crying. 

Ron turned bright red, and ripped the door open further. He shoved Harry out so hard that he fell back, sprawled across the floor. Ron pointed a finger at him.

"I told that if you hurt her, I'd kill you. I'll give you five seconds to run."

And Harry ran.

Pansy drummed her fingers on the table, stirring her food with her other hand. She slid her eyes to the side and caught Greg watching her. She forced a smile, and pushed the nausea from her stomach. She felt…something.

Guilty maybe.

Because she did like Greg, but maybe not as much as she pretended to.

She moved her gaze across the table to Jenna. That bitch, Draco, had brought her just to piss Pansy off, she knew it. Jenna was too stupid to realize she was being used, of course. Pansy frankly didn't think Jenna was all there. After all, she had that stupid tattoo on her arm. Only a dumbass would pledge their life to a half dead zombie who would slaughter any of his loyal faction given half a chance and a shred of a motive.

Pansy snorted at the though of Jenna lying disemboweled in a ditch somewhere. That would serve the bitch right.

"I'm worried about Draco," Jenna said after a few minutes of silence.

"Aw, looks like you got stood up!" Pansy chirped, and flashed Jenna a malicious grin.

"Looks like you got DUMPED," Jenna shot back.

Pansy speared a piece of steak. Her knife clanked against the porcelain plate. "I dumped him, OK?" 

Jenna just shrugged, like it made no difference.

"At least my boobs are real," Pansy said quietly, then took a bit of steak, "Mmm, good!"

Jenna jumped up in her seat, "That's it. I've had enough of you, Pansy Parkinson! Draco was right about you. You _are_ a patronizing little skank. And for your information, my boobs are real."

"Yeah right, you bought those things in a bottle. I saw it in your room when I was doing homework with Cassie Clark. 'Miracle Breast Enhancement Potion'."

Jenna paused as if she were going to say something, then she snapped her mouth shut and turned. She grabbed her purse and stalked away from that table.

"Ok, 'bye, Jenna!" Greg called awkwardly, "See you in school then!"

Then he turned to Pansy and said, "Why'd you do that for? Maybe Draco really liked her!"

Pansy shook her head, "Yeah right. Come one, we're going to find Draco and Blaise. Let's hope they aren't drunk off their arses by now."

Ron's fist collided with the side of Harry's head. Harry yelped in pain and stumbled to the ground, pulling Ron down with him. He rolled out of the way just before Ron hit him another time in the face. Ron hit the floor instead, giving Harry time to scoot away while Ron held his hand and cursed.

"Ron, why are you doing this?" Harry gasped.

Smack. Ron's hand left a mark on Harry's face. 

"Ow. Ron, stop it!"

Ron tackled Harry, bringing his knee to Harry's stomach. He kneed him so hard that he knocked the breath out of Harry. Harry sat up, chocking and coughing. He began hacking so hard that blood dribbled from the corner of his mouth.

"Ron," he sputtered, "Please. Please stop."

Ron stood up over Harry's crumpled body, his fists still clenched. He wanted nothing more right now than to see Harry break down and cry. Cry like Ginny was crying right now in her room. How dare Harry hurt his sister like that. He was supposed to be his best friend.

A few seconds passed, and he looked at Harry again. He realized Harry wasn't going to fight back. He was just going to lay there and take it.

Damn it! He was even ruining this! Ron couldn't keep hitting him if he was just going to sit there. That wasn't right.

"Fight me!" Ron demanded.

"No," Harry coughed.

"Yes, fight me, damn it!"

Harry looked up, whipping away a line of blood that was streaming down his chin. His green eyes bore into Ron's. His face shone with honesty and sadness.

"Ron. I'm sorry. I really am."

"Fuck you! You aren't sorry, or you wouldn't have done it! You wouldn't have broke up with her and broke her heart!"

Harry looked away, then quickly back, "I didn't mean to hurt her, Ron! Believe me. I love her, but not in that way. Ron, I…I…"

Then he whispered something that Ron was not quite sure he heard correctly. He put his hands on his hips and demanded Harry repeat what he'd just said. Harry said it again. Ron's mouth dropped open.

"Harry, no…"

"Yes!" Harry practically shouted, "Yes, I am! Now do you understand why I had to break up with her? It's not as if I could tell her why. I'm not ready for everyone to know!"

"But you told me," Ron said. He watched Harry struggled to stand. Suddenly the brawny 17 year old seemed much smaller and weaker. Ron bent down to help Harry up.

"Yeah, well, you're my best friend. I always knew you'd be the first I'd tell. I just didn't know it would be like this."

Ron suddenly felt very bad about hitting Harry. He helped Harry onto the couch.

"I'm sorry I hit you, Harry."

"It's OK. If she were my sister I would have done the same. Hell, I almost want to hit myself for hurting her. You know I love her, Ron."

"Yeah."

Silence.

"So…you're a…"

"Yep."

"Hmmm."

"Ron, are you OK with it?"

Ron was quiet a moment, then he turned to Harry and offered a smile, and playfully punched him in the arm. "You're my best mate now matter what. It doesn't make you a different person or anything. I'm surprised, but that's all. I still love you like a bro."

Harry smiled, "Thanks."

Ron frowned, "We have got to get you cleaned up."

"What was I even thinking, you know? Why in hell would I go and do something as _bloody stupid _as falling in love with Pansy 'I've Got More Tits Than Personality' Parkinson?" Draco slurred, clunking his drink down indignantly.

Blaise shook his head, watching Draco from across the table. A candle melted onto the table in between them, casting them both in dramatic shadows. 

Blaise ran his finger over his slightly too large nose. Draco thought it was the only thing that kept Blaise from being ungodly handsome. He had sort of rough good looks. Tan, tall, muscular. Almost curly, light brown hair that was only shades darker than his tan skin. He had watery hazel eyes that had the misfortune of being blatantly honest. 

"I don't think you can help falling in love, or who you fall in love with," Blaise said. Blaise also had the misfortune of being slightly too sentimental.

"Right. Whatever. I think you can help it, and I'm telling you now that I'm never falling in love again. You couldn't pay me enough money to go through that again," Draco said.

Blaise shrugged, and stared off into space, his eyes going bluish and getting a dreamy quality to them. "You know," he said, "I think that while being in love does have it's pitfalls, in the end, it really is worth it, if you can find that special someone."

Draco spit his butterbeer out laughing. "Blaise! How in God's name did you get to be in Slytherin? That was absolutely mad, what you just said. I'm going to pretend I didn't hear it."

Blaise just shrugged. Then he looked over Draco's head at something.

"What is it?" Draco asked, turning himself. He turned back, scowling. "Oh shit."

"Draco Malfoy and Blaise Zambini! You had us worried sick!" Pansy squawked. 

Blaise stood up and gave Pansy a lopsided smile, which she returned. "Sorry," Blaise said earnestly. 

Pansy patted his arm, "It's OK. Next time, just tell us where you're going."

"Well, now we're going home," Draco announced.

"Oh, are we? Aren't you even worried about where you're date went?" Pansy asked.

"Nope," Draco said, and pulled his robe over his shoulders, heading for the door. "Where's Crabbe?"

"Still with Jessica, I suspect," Goyle replied.

"Well, lets collect him and head back. It's dark and I'm tired. All I want to do is _sleep_."

Ginny lay cuddled against her pillow in the darkness in her dorm. All alone. And lonely.

She was thinking the phrase 'Die, Harry, die!' over and over again.

She turned and buried her face in the pillow, wrapping her legs around it, and wishing it would cuddle back. But of course it wouldn't. it was just a stupid pillow, and was no substitute for a boyfriend. 

Not that she wanted a boyfriend right now. She didn't want anyone. Not ever again. She was through with love, just as it was through with her. She wasn't risking her heart getting stomped on anymore, it really wasn't worth it at all. 

Turning yet again, and finally opening her eyes, Ginny stared at the window. Why couldn't she just fall asleep and forget about her misery for a few hours? Why couldn't she escape this nightmare, just for a little while?

Really though, how could she be tired at a time like this? Her heart was still thumping. Her stomach was still turning. She was still piss scared at the prospect of facing a life without Harry. What was she supposed to do with out him? How was she supposed to live without him once she'd planned her life all around him?

Damn it, damn it, damn it. She'd really fucked up. She was really never going to let another man interfere in her life ever again!

Suddenly something caught her attention on the horizon of the view outside her window. She sat up quickly, her nostrils flaring briefly. What in the-

Just as suddenly as she'd seen it, she was tearing down the hallway.

"HARRY! RON! HERMIONE!" she bellowed, as she ripped through the common room. She collided with Harry and Ron, who were just coming in through the portrait. Harry's hair was soaked and he had a large bruise on the side of his face. She didn't bother asking why.

"Guys! Guys!" Ginny panted.

Ron, sensing her panic, grabbed her arms, "What is it?"

From behind them, came Hermione's voice.

"I just saw something," Hermione announced breathily. She was carrying Crookshanks under her arm, and the large cat looked rather perturbed. "We have to get out of here."

"What? What did you see?" Harry asked. Ginny wanted to roll her eyes: he was already going into hero-mode.

Instead, she walked up next to Hermione.

"In the sky, on the horizon. I saw a dark mark," she explained.

"A WHAT?!" Ron screamed.

Hermione waved her free arm, trying to gain their attention. "Guys, _look_!"

Above their heads, a gray and brown blur glided threw an open window. Something fluttered down directly over Harry's head, and he reached up and caught it.

"It's a letter!" he exclaimed, opening it. His face lit, "From Sirius!"

Harry's green eyes scanned back and forth quickly and a frown worked over his face. "Sirius says he's hear rumors of an attack on Hogwarts. He says if we see anything to make us suspect the rumors are true that we should…should go into the Forbidden Forest and hide there."

"The Forbidden Forest? Why?" Ron exclaimed.

"He doesn't really say…"

"Well, he probably can't say, right? In case the letter gets intercepted," Hermione contemplated outloud.

"I'll bet he's planning on meeting us there! I mean, maybe that's where he's been hiding," Ron said, "And from the looks of it, we have sufficient reason to think that this attack he's heard of is about to happen right now. I say we get the bloody hell out of here!"

"What about everyone else?" Ginny said. "All the students?"

Harry looked at the letter again, "Well, he says not to worry about everyone else. He says as long as I'm gone, Voldie probably wont hurt anyone else."

"How does he KNOW that?"

"He's smart, Ron! He knew about the attack, didn't he? Anyways, we have a better chance of saving everyone after we go get help."

"We have to tell Dumbledore," Hermione interjected. The tension in the room was getting high, and everyone looked ready to panic.

"No, he says Dumbledore know about it."

"That doesn't make sense!" Ron screamed.

"None of this makes sense!" Harry yelled, "I think we should just do what Sirius says. He wouldn't steer us wrong!"

"Harry's right. I think we should go." Ginny said suddenly. 

Everyone grew silent, and Crookshanks meowed loudly. Hermione nodded and squeezed the big cat.

"I say lets go. I trust Sirius."

"Me too, " Ron sighed.

"Ok then, everyone agrees. We go to the Forbidden Forest and figure out what to do from there."

The group was walking along silently back towards the castle. Draco was trying his best not to look at Pansy. He was trying not to notice how the lamplight was turning her blonde hair gold, and how it was making her dewy lips sparkle. Every once and a while, she'd look over and catch him watching. He tried to glaze his eyes over, as if he were just staring in that direction, but not really seeing anything. But she knew. She had to, that was why she kept grinning and swinging her hand which was clasped with Goyle's pudgy one. Every time she looked at him, her eyes burned holes deep inside him.

Blaise's arm was draped over Draco's shoulder. He didn't mind- it was actually sort of comforting. Draco didn't have any close friends, but if he did, he supposed he'd want Blaise to be one of them. Blaise was the most honest person he knew. He could at least be counted on not to stab you in the back.

Unlike certain cold-hearted, blonde whores he knew.

Maybe he should just stop being a dick to her and say he was sorry for being a jerk and a bad boyfriend. Maybe he should say he was sorry he'd never treated her like he should have. Maybe he should explain that he just had a hard time with intimacy, since he'd experienced so little of it in his life, besides the sexual kind, of course. Maybe he should tell her about all the times he'd stood next to her, calm and cool and casual, when he'd secretly wanted to grab her and hug her close, and tell her how much he loved her.

Maybe he should do all of that. But that would mean admitting he had a heart. And he just wasn't ready for that.

Glancing at Pansy one more time, just long enough for her to turn her head and give him a 'I know you want me, but you're just going to have to get over it' look, Draco snapped his head forwards. He concentrated on the dark horizon in front of him, and the form of the school rising up into the sky. He was busy counting towers when he noticed something unusual. But before he could say anything, Crabbe spoke up.

"Hey guys, what do you suppose that green thing up there is?"

Everyone literally stopped. Blaise pulled his arm up so that it hung around Draco's neck, and leaned forward to get a better look. Draco could feel his warm breath near his face, and he noticed it getting shallower and faster.

"That doesn't look right," Blaise said. His huge nose was in the way of Draco's vision, so he slid away from the boy to look.

"It's kinda…twisty," Pansy said.

Draco looked over and was happy to see that she'd let go of Goyle's massive paw.

"You know what that looks like…" Blaise trailed off, almost as if he didn't want to speak his suspicions.

He didn't have to.

Jessica, Crabbe's date, who was a short and chubby Slytherin, dashed up ahead of them.

"They said we'd be seeing it soon, but I didn't think this soon," she muttered to herself. Then she stopped and turned around a few feet in front of them. "Aren't you guys coming? You-Know-Who will be mad if we're late!" she said, and pulled down her sleeve to show the mark on her arm, as if there was any confusion to what she was talking about.

Draco pulled down his sleeve to show his milk white skin, unmarred by any design. Blaise did the same, and Crabbe, Goyle and Pansy soon followed suit. Millie, who was standing just behind Blaise, shrug and ran to catch up with Jessica. The two disappeared down the road quickly.

As soon as they were out of ear shot, Blaise erupted into a full blow panic attack.

"Guys!! Did you hear her? Something is going on at the school!" He whispered roughly.

"Yeah, we got that."

"Well, what are we going to do? We can't go BACK there!" 

"We'll just go somewhere else," Pansy suggested calmly.

"Like where? Oh geez, my stomach hurts!" Goyle said, suddenly panicky. "I didn't eat enough!" he squealed, grabbing Pansy, "WHY DIDN'T YOU LET ME EAT MORE?!"

Pansy's nose wrinkled up, "Because you're on a diet! It was your idea, not mine!"

Goyle dropped her and began pacing back and forth. Crabbe patted him on the shoulder, seemingly understanding.

"Ignore them. We have to think," Draco said, pushing his hand through his white hair.

"We could stay here, in Hogsmead," Pansy suggested.

"No, if Voldemort is at the school then we aren't safe here. He could easily find us, and kill us, if that's what he's after."

"HE'S GOING TO KILL US!?!" Goyle screamed.

"No, shut up, you fat moron," Draco quipped, "We're just thinking ahead, just in case. What about the Forbidden Forest?"

"The forest?" Blasie asked.

"The Forbidden Forest? No. We'd just as soon die there anyways," Crabbe said

"No, no," Blaise said, rubbing his head and looking thoughtful. "Not with me guiding you. I grew up camping, this will be a piece of cake."

"This is NOT camping Blasie."

"Shut up and listen. I can guide us through, trust me. We'll be safe there, no one will think to look for us."

"I don't want to die! I don't want to camp! I'm HUNGRY!" Goyle cried.

"Oh, shut up, you big baby," Pansy snapped.

"Don't talk to Pooh Bear that way," Draco sneered.

"You shut up too, you bloody git."

"Guys! This is not the time for your silly arguing. We could be in danger here. Now, is it the forest, or what?" Blaise asked.

"You're going to get us killed."

"We have a better chance in there than we do out here," Blaise responded.

"We don't have any food!" 

"I can find us some."

"Can you really guide us through?" Pansy asked.

Blaise looked down at her, hazel eyes sparkling with determination, "I promise you I can."

Pansy nodded slowly, "Ok. Ok then. I say let's do it."

"Noo!" Goyle wailed.

"Yeah, let's go then," Draco agreed, adding quickly, "We haven't got a better plan."

"I agree," Crabbe said.

"Ok, then, it's settled. Let's go," Blasie said.

"We're all going to die!" Goyle wailed, as everyone dashed off towards the dark forest looming on the horizon.


End file.
